Report Data Object Management

When you create a report design, you select one or more entities called report data objects. A report data object is a collection of business objects defined in the application that can be used to create reports. For example, a report data object named Time_Detail contains information fields, such as employee full name, employee ID, hire data, in-punch time, and so on. Each of these information fields can be a column in the report.

To manage report data objects, select Administration > Application Setup from the Main Menu and then select Common Setup > Report Data Object Management.

  1. Click Tap Main Menu  > Administration > Application Setup > Common Setup > Report Data Object Management.
  2. From the Report Data Object Management page, click tap Add and then select one of the following:
    • Employee View: Employee-based reports.
    • Business Structure View: Reports based on business structures.
    • Work Unit View: Only for Healthcare Productivity. Enable custom reporting of productivity, payroll, and volume data by work unit; daily, for a range of days, or by pay period (symbolic time period).
    • Employee — Time Series : Employee-based reports that show trend-selected KPIs over time based on a time increment.
    • Business Structure — Time Series: Business structure-based reports that show trend-selected KPIs over time based on a time increment. By charting the Time Series data, managers can see trends in labor management performance. This information shows progress toward defined goals or identifies worrisome trends that require attention.
    • Work Unit — Time Series: Only for Healthcare Productivity. Enable custom reporting of productivity and volume data by work unit; daily or by pay period increments.
  3. In the Create Report Data Object page, you define the collection of columns to use in your report. Note that you do not specify default time frame or Hyperfind here.
  4. Enter the Report Data Object Key which is the unique identifier for the RDO. This key is hidden, and you cannot change the name after you save it.
  5. Enter the description of the data object in the Description field. This information is displayed in the list of data objects. It should be as descriptive as possible to help you locate the appropriate data object.
  6. If you are creating a Business Structure or Business Structure - Time Series RDO, select the location type from the Location Type drop-down list.
  7. Note: The location type used for a Business Structure - Time Series RDO can only be created and used with a location type where all locations of that type have fewer than 1,000 organization jobs. For example, a company that has a business structure with the location type of “Region,” has four regions that contain “Districts,” “Stores,” and “Departments.” If any one of the four regions has a total number of jobs across all child locations that is more than 1,000, the RDO cannot be created or executed.
  8. Select the Time Frame, select one of the following:
    • Selected Time Period: (For the Business Structure - Time Series or Employee - Time Series RDO) Set specific time increments. Select the Time Increments and Time Increments Formats as follows:

      Selected Time Period parameters
      Time IncrementTime Increment Format
      Calendar Day
      • Date
      • Day of Week
      • Day of Week + Date
      Calendar Week
      • Date Range
      • Week Number
      • Week Number + Date Range

      The calendar week has two settings for the start day of calendar week:

      • Monday to Sunday
      • Sunday to Saturday

      The setting differs according to whether the user is existing or new.

      • Existing tenants are set to Monday to Sunday for the start day of the calendar week. The setting can be manually changed by the administrator to Sunday to Saturday.
      • New tenants default to Sunday to Saturday for the start day of the calendar week. The setting can be manually changed by the administrator to Monday to Sunday.

      To set the calendar week:

      1. Go to the Main Menu > System Settings > Global Values.
      2. Scroll to global.analytics.timeseries.calendarWeek.startDayofWeek and select the calendar week you want to use.
      Calendar Month
      • Date Range
      • Month + Date Range
      • Month Name
      • Month Short Name
      Calendar Quarter
      • Date Range
      • Quarter Number
      • Quarter Number + Date Range
      • Quarter Short Number
      • Quarter Short Number + Date Range

      Note: Time increments are based on the “standard” calendar, not a fiscal calendar and uses the ISO 8601 standard. This primarily relates to the “week” increments and how weeks are defined. A week starts on Monday and runs through Sunday.

    • Relative Time Period: (Available only if you are creating a Employee, Employee timeseries, Business structure, Business structure timeseries, Work Unit, or Work Unit timeseries RDO.) Select to set a time period relative to any symbolic time period or date range within a report. This setting also allows you to compare data across multiple time periods in a single report. Complete the following parameters:

      Relative Time Period parameters
      Relative Time Period StartTime Increment Format
      Week to Date Reference

      Week to Date Reference will return data for all days in the week where the selected time period start or end date falls.

      • Sun to Sat
      • Mon to Sun
      • Tue to Mon
      • Wed to Tue
      • Thu to Wed
      • Fri to Thu
      • Sat to Fri
      • Logged-in User's Locale — if selected the week to date settings for the logged in user's locale will be used.
      Number of Days Before Selected Date

      Enter the number of days before the selected time periods start or end date.

      Number of Days After Selected Date

      Enter the number of days after the selected time periods start or end date.

      Number of Weeks Before Selected Date

      Enter the number of weeks before the selected time periods start or end date.

      Number of Weeks After Selected Date

      Enter the number of weeks after the selected time periods start or end date.

    • Symbolic Time Period: (Available only for the work unit RDO type as Pay Period Productivity for the design of Healthcare Productivity pay period productivity-based reports.) Select one of the following:

      • Pay Period (default)
      • Pay Period Year To Date Fiscal
      • Last 6 Pay Periods
      • Last 2 Pay Periods
      • Last 3 Pay Periods
      • Last 4 Pay Periods

  9. Select or clear the Column Relationship Rules as follows:
    1. When enabled, you can only create RDOs with entities that have defined relationships in the system.
    2. If cleared, you can create RDOs that may render data in different rows for the selected grain in the RDO.

    Note: The Column Relationship Rules option is only available when enabled and allowed. See Ability to Disable Column Relationship Rules.

  10. In the Columns area, click tap Add . The columns that are available vary depending on the type of RDO you are creating.
    1. In the Select Column glance, scroll down the list of entities or enter text in one of the blank cells to search. If you need to start over, click tap Clear Filter.
    2. In the Add Column Properties glance, edit the label if needed and then click tap Add Column.
    3. Repeat until all required columns are selected.
  11. Click Tap Save.

On the Report Data Objects Management page, select a Report data object key and click tap Edit.

Note:

If the data object is being used in a report design, the following warning appears:

Warning: The data object is currently used by at least one report. Do you wish to continue?

If you click tap Yes, the report that uses the data object may not function as designed.

The edit page opens. You cannot change the Report data object key, but you can change the description and indicate how to save the changes: everywhere the report data object is used or to a new report data object.

You can add, edit, or delete columns. When finished, click Save.

  1. Click Tap Add .
  2. In the Select column glance, scroll down the list of entities or enter text in one of the blank cells to search. If you need to start over, click tap Clear Filter.
  3. In the Add column properties glance, edit the label if needed and then click tap Add Column.
  4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all the required columns are selected.
  5. Click Tap Save when finished.
  1. Select a column and click click tap Edit .
  2. In the Edit column properties glance, you can only edit the label and then click tap Edit Column.
  1. Select a column and click tap Delete .
  2. Review the warning and, if you still want to delete the column, click tap Yes.

On the Report Data Objects Management page, select a Report data object key and click tap Edit to open the edit page.

Note:

If the data object is being used in a report design, the following warning appears:

Warning: The data object is currently used by at least one report. Do you wish to continue?

If you click tap Yes, the report that uses the data object may not function as designed.

To copy the report data object:

  1. Select A new Report Data Objects button in the Save changes to area.
  2. Enter a new Report data object key. This is the unique identifier for the report data object. The end user will not see this key and you cannot change the name after you save it.
  3. Enter the description of the copied data object in the Description field. This information is displayed in the list of data objects. It should be as descriptive as possible to help you locate the appropriate data object.
  4. Add, edit, or delete columns as needed. When finished, click tap Save.
  1. Click Tap Add .
  2. In the Select column glance, scroll down the list of entities or enter text in one of the blank cells to search. If you need to start over, click tap Clear Filter.
  3. In the Add column properties glance, edit the label if needed and then click tap Add Column.
  4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all the required columns are selected.
  5. Click Tap Save when finished.
  1. Select a column and click tap Edit ..
  2. In the Edit column properties glance, you can only edit the label and then click tap Edit Column.
  1. Select a column and click tap Delete . .
  2. Review the warning and, if you still want to delete the column, click tap Yes.
  1. In the Report Data Objects Management page, select a Report data object key and click tap Delete .
  2. Review the warning and, if you still want to delete the column, click tap Yes.

When you are designing a report, you select a report data object and Report Studio makes the data fields in the data object available to your report design. The data object remains on the server and can be modified after you design your report.

You can refresh data in a modified data object so that the report design uses the most current data.

  1. In Report Studio, select Manage Data.
  2. In the Selected Data field, select Refresh to retrieve the most recent data from a data object store. The current data fields appear in Data in Report Studio.

If you select Refresh when you create a new report design that uses a data object store, nothing happens because you have selected a new data object store file, and there are no existing data fields that Report Studio can refresh.